Eric Freeman

Kevin Garnett may be 38 years old, but he remains one of the most versatile defenders in the NBA. When KG needs to switch onto a guard, it's a fair bet that he will be able to stick on the ballhandler and force a tough shot. Not being the defensive force he used to be does not mean that he can't make an impact.

Sometimes, though, Garnett's excellent defense is not enough, which the Minnesota Timberwolves learned in Monday night's game vs. the Los Angeles Clippers at Target Center. With under a minute remaining and the Clippers up 106-103, Garnett switched onto Chris Paul after a pick from DeAndre Jordan. As he has so many times in his career, he stuck with one of the league's best ballhandlers. But Paul made several moves to get just enough space and altered his shot to make sure it would not be blocked:

Enough has gone right for the Golden State Warriors this season that fans can be forgiven for expecting them to pull out an unlikely comeback victory. Down 108-99 to the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center with 3:29 left in regulation, the Warriors went on a 9-0 run over more than two minutes to tie the game on a Stephen Curry jumper (to give him eight points in the run alone) with just 1:08 on the clock. Given the Warriors' performance this season, it seemed as if they were headed for a victory on the sixth and final game of their Eastern Conference road trip.

It was not to be. After a Golden State turnover, the Nets called on former Warrior Jarrett Jack to create their final shot with the shot clock turned off. The defense from Curry was quality, but Jack got the better of him with this pull-up jumper:

The NBA announced Monday that Harden has been suspended one game for kicking James in the groin with 2:08 remaining in the third quarter. Harden was issued a flagrant-1 foul during the game, but that has since been upgraded to a flagrant-2. Harden will miss the Rockets' Tuesday game at the Atlanta Hawks, another East contender.

Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Russell Westbrook is the biggest story in the NBA right now, a player contributing at an MVP level and impressing with the sheer volume of his production even when he's not particularly efficient. He is currently the definition of a must-watch player.

Westbrook notched his third-straight triple-double in Friday night's road game against the Portland Trail Blazers, but for the second game in a row he could not lead his team to a win. The Blazers came back from a 13-point fourth-quarter to deficit to top the Thunder 115-112, dropping OKC to just a half-game ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans for the final playoff spot in the West.

The New York Knicks have given their fans little to cheer about this season. At their worst, the squad with the NBA's worst record have inspired questions about exactly where they're going, whether Derek Fisher is the right man to lead them, and the extent to which Phil Jackson can construct a winner. It's easy to watch them and feel very confused about what it all means.

Credit to guard Alexey Shved, then, for riding those vibes and coming up with one of the most confounding plays of the year. With roughly 7:00 remaining in the fourth quarter of Friday night's game at the Detroit Pistons, Shved darted to the basket after catching a deflection of his own pass for ... well, we're not really sure. Because instead of putting the ball in the general vicinity of the basket, he threw it 10 feet over everything. Take a look:

We could take some guesses at what happened here, but it's probably more enjoyable just to chalk it all up to some kind of cosmic coincidence. Let the mysterious remain mysterious.

The Washington Wizards have moved from genuine contention to serious disappointment over the course of just a few weeks. Unfortunately for them, there do not appear to be easy answers to their problems.

The Wizards faced the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center in need of a win after having lost five straight and 10 of their last 12. On paper, the opponent would have seemed to offer them a solid chance at a victory — the Sixers had lost five in a row themselves and quite famously suffer from a talent gap. So it's a mark of how bad things have gotten for Washington that they lost 89-81 in a listless display during which Philadelphia rarely looked particularly threatening. This was a truly bad basketball game, and the worst team in it held hopes of challenging for a title less than a month ago.

The NBA is full of amazing lead guards, but perhaps no two are as active as Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Eric Bledsoe of the Phoenix Suns. Even when they're not at their best, these two players simply make things happen at both ends. They run around, fly through the air, and often crash into opponents and teammates. If they stop moving, something is probably wrong.

Thursday night's game between the Thunder and Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena showed how both Westbrook and Bledsoe can impact a game. Phoenix ended up with a 117-113 overtime win, but the final score gives little indication of the straight-up weirdness of the night.

After Phoenix had held an eight-point or low-double-digit lead most of the way, OKC fought back to turn the final few minutes into a battle for the win. With 20 seconds on the clock and the Suns up 109-106, Westbrook went to the rim in lieu of taking a game-tying three. He managed to tie the game anyway:

Thursday's matchup between the league-best Golden State Warriors and red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers was billed as a potential NBA Finals preview. As with so many high-profile games before it, the night was dominated by LeBron James.

The Cavs superstar scored a season-high 42 points on 15-of-25 shooting as Cleveland beat Golden State 110-99. The Warriors got out to a hot start in a high-scoring first quarter but were handled by the Cavaliers over the final three quarters in a game whose result rarely seemed in doubt.

In addition to his impressive scoring total, James added 11 boards, five assists, and three steals over 36 minutes. Take a look at some of his highlights below:

While Cleveland's offense gets much of the attention, their defense arguably impressed more vs. Golden State. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 30 points on 10-of-30 shooting. MVP candidate Curry especially struggled when guarded by taller wings and looked off most of the game.

When Paul George suffered a gruesome leg injury in a Team USA exhibition this summer, the assumption was that he would miss the entire 2014-15 season with the Indiana Pacers while rehabbing. Yet that expectation changed several weeks ago — George told Yahoo's own Marc Spears that he had plans to practice by March 1 and return to real-live NBA games some time in the middle of the month. The plan seemed optimistic, but also made the return of one of the NBA's most exciting players much more real.

George appears to be sticking to his timeline. The two-time All-Star was a full participant in Pacers practice for the first time since his injury Thursday, or three days before his self-imposed date. Michael Marot of the Associated Press has more:

You can also check out video of Marc's conversation with George at All-Star Weekend:

Denver Nuggets rookie big man Jusuf Nurkic has developed a reputation as a classic NBA tough guy in just a few short months. The 20-year-old Bosnian has impressed as an interior presence at both ends, but he also plays with a no-nonsense style more often found in crusty veterans. I suppose we should expect nothing less from a player who may have only been scouted in the first place because someone wanted to know if his father, a policeman who earned headlines for defeating 14 people in a fight, had any sons.

Nurkic was quickly handed a technical foul, which is not surprising given that he calmly placed the ball in the hands of the dude he had just dominated on the block. But this is normal taunt — it's hilarious because it's so nice, almost as if Nurkic is making a mockery of sportsmanship with dry wit.

It is unlikely that Oscar Wilde ever played basketball, but I'm pretty sure this is how he would have talked trash.